Teaching, Learning and Practicing Yoga and Buddhism – Freedom and Living Simply
It is easy to get a somewhat distorted view of the country, culture and society that we live in, especially if we usually read the newspapers or are overly influenced by what we see on the news everyday.
For a number of years this writers main source of information about Thailand and its people was through the daily look at the English language newspapers published here. The news was always depressing and many times unbelievable and horrible.
During a recent trip to Cambodia, I noticed the same reaction in myself when looking at one of the English language newspapers published there. The crimes being committed there that made the news were pretty much the same as in Thailand, revolving around robbery, sex, murder and the violation of anotherÂ’s human and political rights.
Then, through the interest in gathering resources and texts for teaching English in both Thailand and Cambodia, I started to look at the daily headlines and news from a number of newspapers and locales in the U.S.
It did not matter if the place was Austin, Texas, Jacksonville or Orlando, Florida, Los Angeles or San Francisco, California, New York City, or Cleveland, Ohio, the news was the same as it had been in Thailand or Cambodia.
Sad, depressing and at times unbelievable, mainly because those who live in the west and the U.S. have so many wonderful things that can and should bring them happiness in their lives.
But the bottom line is that it is not what we have or do not have in our environment that determines the state of our mind and consciousness, but instead the quality of our mind and consciousness and the state of our mindfulness.
The defilements are at play in all individuals throughout the world, regardless of where they live and what language they speak.
Perhaps part of the problem is that we do not know how to live a simple life.
We consume much more then we need in order to live well and live wisely.
This consumption consists of things such as food, sex, clothing, water, electricity, comfort and space.
In our freedom, we have been conditioned by all sorts of forces to consume with little mindfulness about what it is we really need. We may find that if we gear our life to living more simply, some of our needs and desires will not be as strong as they were before.
We also may find that some of the things that are very basic to life are easily within our grasp and use, things like the breath and air, nature and trees, and the mental and physical well - being of our own body and mind.
We sometimes see that we and others, especially when we are exposed to the sad, terrible and unbelievable things that people do through our reading of the newspapers and watching of the news, are not using and experiencing the freedom that we talk about and seemingly treasure so much in a wise way.
Perhaps if we make an effort to cut back on all things and live more simply, we will find a greater focus and be able to experience a greater joy and sense of satisfaction through the self – discipline that we have imposed on ourselves.
©2007 John C. Kimbrough
John is a volunteer teaching Yoga and Buddhism and providing other health and educational resources for men and women in a local provincial prison in Cambodia. He has lived in Asia for twenty years